Gaspard du Nord

Author of Livre D'ivon.

Curtis Blakely came across a passing reference to a different English translation in a note from the English Historical Review of May 1906, discussing the late Dr. N.H. Daniels:

“I must also add, as his former pupil and a frequent caller to his home, that Professor Daniel’s library also includes more esoteric works, such as several of Robert Fludd’s alchemical treatises, an evocative Persian copy of the Zohar, and a beautifully illustrated copy of the Book of Ibon. Printed in 1672, it cataloged all manner of fell sorcery, such as could be conjured up in the Gallic imagination of Gaspar the Norman. I find it curious that no mention of those works appears in his bequest to the Society. Perhaps his heirs might elucidate us as to the disposition of these works also, for the sake of scholarship? Books such as these, more valuable for their insight into the primitive mind than their actual contents, should not be discarded simply for being fanciful.”

Additionally, Curtis found this footnote: “One exception to the vigorous persecution of heresy demonstrated by the pious bishops of this era is the unusual figure of Gaspar (sometimes Casper) of Normandy. According to a now lost 16th century chronicle of Vyones, in 1232 Gaspar, described as a sorcerer, provided an unspecified service for the city, thereby defending it from the witch Nathaire. For his service, the city’s bishop (despite Pope Gregory IX’s admonitions against heresy and the creation of the Papal Inquisition the previous year) granted this Gaspar a pardon for “all acts of Witchcraft and Heresies past, present, and future.” He is said to have remained an inhabitant of the city to the end of his days, perhaps due to the protection offered to him by the local church leadership. The children of the city still recall him in the old rhyme, “un pour les pauvres, deux pourle froid, troi pour Gaspar le bon et St.Augia” (the last presumably being St. Augustine of Hippo known for his charity).”